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PlantAmnesty
How do you come together and share a resource?
For over twenty years now, PlantAmnesty has been getting the pruning word out to the public—we estimate that over 80% of what homeowners and even professionals call pruning—isn’t. It’s just cutting and it is going to backfire, causing trouble for both people AND their plants. Take tree topping, for example. It was once considered a form of tree pruning until PlantAmnesty taught folks that tree topping is more a kind of vandalism! Armed with science-based technical knowledge, good-will, a sense of humor, and a mission, we have become a respected resource in the greater Seattle area.
PlantAmnesty is a bono fide, non-profit organization that combines the knowledge and resources of a diverse group of plant lovers. We are made up of professional gardeners and arborists, educators, and home gardeners who care about the green things. Together we raise the awareness of the need for better plant care. With a name like PlantAmnesty and our mock-militant mission ‘to end the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs caused by mal-pruning,” we creatively get the word out through mass-media (newspapers, radio, and TV). Reporters are always hoping we are a plants-rights group! Often they come to scoff, but then stay to ask how to prune their purple-leaf plum tree. See video included with this proposal. PlantAmnesty knows that the mass media is the cheapest, fastest way to change the body of human knowledge.
Not only do we create the demand for better pruning, we also fill it. How?
● Low-cost pruning classes
● Hands-on all-day pruning/renovation workshops for homeowners and professionals
● Master Pruner Program (a Master Pruner certificate is earned by anyone who attends 18 PlantAmnesty pruning classes and workshops)
● Free pruning literature, including 6,000 free pruning guides given out every year through the mail and at information booths, classes, events, and via our website. We also give out 300 free DVDs on pruning every year.
● Free online Adopt-a-Plant list to help unwanted plants find new homes
● A free pruning answer line available to the community
● Two free referral services to help the public locate good pruning professionals: PlantAmnesty Arborist Referral Service and PlantAmnesty Gardener/Pruner Referral Service.
Check out our website at http://www.plantamnesty.org.
In 2010 PlantAmnesty wants to do even more. Our goal is to expand our horizons and share our knowledge with our local community by organizing three different pruning events: a Renovation/Pruning Workshop in Spanish geared for Spanish-speaking landscape professionals; a free Arbor Day Prune for a deserving landscape, with professional arborist services provided by the arborists on the PlantAmnesty Referral Service; and a free Landscape Renovation/Prune, also for a deserving landscape, with skilled labor provided by the graduates of PlantAmnesty’s Master Pruner Program.
How would your group use the award money?
During these difficult economic times, PlantAmnesty needs financial assistance to pull off these three community-outreach events. We would use the award money to cover the costs of site selection, recruitment (of teachers, Master Pruner volunteers, PlantAmnesty Referral Service Arborists, and other volunteers), food for volunteers, equipment, free literature, and teacher fees (skilled teachers cost about $150 each, or $1,500 per event).
